Spies in the sky may track motorists in Britain within a decade if the government goes ahead with controversial plans to introduce road user charging schemes, scientists said Tuesday.
Monitoring would be via a combination of static cameras to capture license plate details, electronic tags in vehicles that would be read by roadside monitoring stations and global positioning system satellites to read on-board transponders.
My favorite part:
Transport consultant Jack Opiola said the thorny issue of personal data privacy could easily be dealt with by appropriate laws.
Has England become a test bed for The US? God UK, WAKE UP!!
Man, driving’s not gonna be much fun anymore if your car is monitored at all times.
Or living.
Lets see…
anyone remember that in the USA, they use small aircraft to Bag and tag speeders??? they shoot a pic of your plate and MAIL you the ticket…
When will it happen.
Transponders in cars and monitors ALL over the place…
To track your car,
KNOW where your car is,
And CHECK if you are speeding…
Let’s see if the ‘content link’ catches a reference to OnStar.
J/P=?
Why bother check if the car is speeding? Just put a printer in the car and have it give you a speeding ticket instantly. It could even forward a copy to your insurance agency. Just think of the tax savings we could achieve – Thousands of traffic cops would be obsoleted!
What do you all think EasyPass is all about? Really, people, wake up. They’ve ALREADY used EasyPass to ticket people…commercial vehicles only, but it’s just a matter of time before they use it on everyone.
Tony Blair was asked about this in question time last week. A Liberal Democrat quoted Blair saying he was opposed to a police state. Blair’s response was the huge benefit in safety and that anyone who thinks this has anything to do with a police state doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
How about Congress passes a law that says states cannot use easypass as evidence in criminal investigations, and they cant charge more for not using easypass?
As for EZPass comments, posters above should be aware that your data is already abused in a way, just the few know. Sorry for not remembering the name of the company, but the PRIVATE company have been allowed to place their own receivers for EZPAss tags arround NYC roads and sell the data. This is ongoing for at least 4 yrs. Excuse is that the data is “anonimous”. However, one can imagine EZPass increasing their profits by selling database matching consumers to the numbers… NYC itself came to the same game last Fall. They installed their own receivers, again under “anonimous” clause to “monitor traffic flow”. It is even easier for Govt. to gain access to the database matching numbers to the people… This is beeing sold as a convinience and is played on low awareness of the people about this technology .
So, at least arround NYC hardware is already set to monitor you both by the private sector and the govt…. Speeding tickets are the least for possible abuse of this.
#6 you have something there…
How about going a step further and disabling the car until the fee is paid in full.
I think the concept of personal privacy is a myth and the concern about it is too little too late. I’m waiting to see what the counter measures will be to spoof this stuff. Let the battle begin!!
Rob Halford of Judas Priest sung about this 25 years ago. 🙂
Electric Eye
Up here in space, Im looking down on you, My lasers trace, Everything you do
You think youve private lives, Think nothing of the kind, There is no true escape, Im watching all the time
Im made of metal, My circuits gleam, I am perpetual, I keep the country clean
Im elected electric spy, Im protected electric eye
Always in focus, You cant feel my stare, I zoom into you, You dont know Im there
I take a pride in probing all your secret moves, My tearless retina takes pictures that can prove
Im made of metal, My circuits gleam, I am perpetual, I keep the country clean
Im elected electric spy,Im protected electric eye
Electric eye, in the sky, Feel my stare, always there, Theres nothing you can do about it, Develop and expose, I feed upon your every thought, And so my power grows
Im made of metal, My circuits gleam, I am perpetual,I keep the country clean
Im elected electric spy, Im protected electric eye, Protected. detective. electric eye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkVEHY4uI9Q&mode=related&search=
#8 – How about Congress passes a law that says states cannot use easypass as evidence in criminal investigations, and they cant charge more for not using easypass?
Comment by MikeN — 5/1/2007 @ 11:01 am
I wholly agree… and I would go far far further outlawing the use of any number of monitoring technologies for all kinds of things.
The problem is that getting citizens in the modern age to get active in politics is like trying to drive a herd of cats from Kansas to Chicago. It’s real simple, government is citizens. We are in charge… if we want to be.
We just have to decide that we want to be.
#11 – I think the concept of personal privacy is a myth and the concern about it is to little to late. I’m waiting to see what the counter measures will be to spoof this stuff. Let the battle begin!!
Comment by KVolk — 5/1/2007 @ 12:39 pm
A little late? Well, if we all just want to take the view that “you can’t fight city hall” then I guess it is a self-fulfiling prophesy. We could have privacy rights. We could destroy DRM. We could make it safe to apply for a job AND have a MySpace account at the same time. We could take back this nation…
Or we can just decided to be subjects to a King… I suppose I’ll go along with whatever you guys decide… What choice does any individual have when the mass is resigned to submission?
13. OFTLO its not real simple, its real complex. And I totally agree, but every time I bring this up to people around me they look at my tin foil hat, point and laugh. I cant keep fighting this thing alone, and the few of us that do care about it seemed to be few and far between so we just vent our frustrations on blogs. So what the fuck is the answer to wake people up, because by the time people do wake up it will be too late, it may already be. And dont tell me to write my congressasshole, because I really dont think they care or they are part and parcel of the problem. If you get people together, as part of a peaceful protest you can be arrested as a terrorist. I’d leave this fucking country if I could find one that was still free.
OFTLO I’m just saying you want to fight the battle that’s already lost I looking to see how to fight the next battle. You want to play on their turf and “fight city hall” go ahead but you will lose, it’s their turf. Get use to feeling defeated but while you fight the rear gaurd action I would rather look at what can be done to take in the fight in the next 20 years instead. Oh by the way we are pretty far from living in a monarchy, thankfully.
Driving is a privilege, not a right. If you are not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear of the eye in the sky. You have no right to privacy when you are out in public.
#15 – It is complex. It really is. I do not disagree…
Politics is a game of inches. There are no sweeping changes. No radical reforms. Gridlock and inefficiency is built into the system by design. It’s what makes our system brilliant. It ensures that a crazy mob can’t rebuild government in a day (like California’s State Government can, and look at that place…).
The other problem you face is that issues like this really are magnets for actual tin foil hats. You and I might see a real threat to personal liberty. But how do you communicate that when crazy Uncle Joe has already prattled on about how killer robots are upon us?
#16 – It’s my privacy. I can’t assume the battle is lost just because the technology outpaced the dialog. And I honestly don’t believe its lost… unless we believe this -> ” it’s their turf. ”
It isn’t. Its our turf. All politicians are citizens. All citizens have access. Collective voices get heard more often than individual voices, so organization and eduation and dedication to the longevity of an issue is critical. This is OUR nation. There is no them… There is only us. But if everyone wants to frame the debate as us vs. then, then we have indeed lost.
This has been Political Theory Weekly with out guest OhForTheLoveOf
Next week, Alexis DeTouqeville….
This story wasn’t anymore interesting yesterday. Or the day before, or the day before that, or….
#6: With 900cc and 39 horsepower, I can only dream of getting a speeding ticket anywhere; tracking me is going to be a pretty boring pursuit for the authorities.
17. You are a moron.
OFTLO Politics is the turf and I think that politics is us vs them and I choose not to play in that field for the reasons you cited. Politics is just churning the notions of the past 50 years with the technology of the last 10 years. I also challenge your assumption on privacy what is that you do outside our home that should be private, other than use a public restroom or transact finacial business that has finacial information that can’t be shared. I think the future will be how do you mask your activities when in public, like personal privacy shields etc. when engaging in those activities, but the notion that people have privacy in the public domain is quaint at best. Everyones home I agree is sancrosact and that is what I think all of us have to be aware of and that is when the “King” as you say will truely be in power.
#22 – Well… What can I say… Decisions are made by those who show up. 🙂